The log lay strewn across the middle of the road, barring the way for Dan and Mindy Summers, a married couple en route to their family’s house for Christmas dinner. It’s nighttime, the moon shining bright on the forest that the road cuts through.

Dan gets out of the car to move the log. Then, a gunshot. He crouches down, and a voice rings out in the night.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

That’s when the plot of “Roadside,” a dramatic thriller by director and Russellville native Eric England, picks up. England’s second feature film follows the married couple as they are stranded in the woods, held captive by an unseen gunman and trying to figure out why he’s targeted them.

Two and a half years ago, England found himself in a similar predicament, minus the phantom gunman. He was riding with his father to spend the holiday with his family when they came upon a log in the middle of the road.

“I was sitting in the front seat of the truck. This was during the daytime,” England said. “And I guess a deer or a squirrel or something moved in the woods, and he looked up to see what it was.

“In that split second — it probably took two seconds out of my life — it hit me: How scary would it be if there was a guy out there talking to my dad right now, but I couldn’t hear him?” he continued. “And what if he said that we couldn’t leave, and he had a gun pointed at us? And what if that log was put there specifically for us? It was kind of a weird psychological setup that I had never really seen before.”

It might’ve taken just two seconds to think of the idea, but those two seconds sparked months and months of work, which will come to fruition this Sunday when the U.S. premiere of “Roadside” will close the second annual Little Rock Horror Festival Sunday night. Last year, England’s debut effort, “Madison County,” won the audience award at the festival.

The incident with the log in the road occurred just after filming for “Madison County” ended, and England had his options on what to do next.

“We had people that were asking, ‘Hey, do you want to do ‘Madison County 2?’” he said. “But I really didn’t want to pigeonhole myself into this guy who did movies with pig-headed serial killers. I wanted to do a movie that showed a different side of the genre, but I also wanted to show a more mature side of myself.”

Stylistically, “Roadside” is literally a night and day difference from its predecessor. Where “Madison County” was a backwoods slasher flick filmed entirely during the day — an attempt to create an authentic horror experience “under the shroud of daylight,” as England put it — “Roadside”is an Alfred Hitchcock-type thriller filmed at night, resulting in a dark, foreboding atmosphere.

“‘Madison County’ was handheld and very raw, almost a documentary-like style,” England said. “‘Roadside’ is much more sophisticated, a lot more methodical, a lot more dolly shots that are smooth. And ‘Roadside’ deals with adults, and real problems, whereas ‘Madison County’ is your kids-in-the-woods trope.”

But the differences created logistical issues when it came to filming the movie. In theory, “Roadside” would seem to be an easier movie to film: Two characters are stuck in a static location for most of the film’s running time.

But filming the movie required England and his crew to adjust their sleep schedules after being jet-lagged, flying from Los Angeles to Virginia where “Roadside” was filmed. He was in Vrginia for just two days before they began filming. To make matters worse, they shot the film in April, when nights were short and the weather chilly.

Yet after 13 days of filming at a breakneck pace, they had their movie — or the raw components of it, at least.

“A normal feature film shoots for probably 30 days, so in that regard, we’re really proud of it,” England said. “It was definitely a challenge, but every film is different, and every film is going to have its problems to figure out.”

The result comprises England’s sophomore effort and reflects a passion spawned over a decade and a half ago, when he watched for the first time what would become his favorite movie.

“I remember watching ‘Scream’ when I was 9 years old in a movie theatre,” he said. “And I remember being so freaked out, not just by the movie, but by the audience’s reaction to it. Everyone was screaming and cowering in fear, and it was just such a cool experience to be a part of.”

“I remember telling myself at 9 years old, ‘I want to do this. I want to affect people this way,’” he added.